The VA instructed bidders to submit a base bid item price and four alternate bid item prices. The timely bid Talion submitted contained a base bid price of $6.6 million. However, the day after the submission deadline, Talion informed the VA that its low bid price (for comparison, Herman’s was $7.8 million) was too good to be true.

Talion explained that it had used an erroneous amount for subcontract drywall services---$500,000 instead of $1.5 million---to calculate both the base bid and alternate bid items. The bidder requested that it be permitted to correct (or withdraw) the bid, and it sought to correct its bid price to $7.7 million.

Talion sent the VA a copy of its subcontractor quote for the drywall work. It also provided an explanation for the mistake: The $500,000 was a "plug" number that it failed to replace with the actual sub’s quoted price. This failure, Talion stated, was due to its p[..]